An appetizer is part of meals all over the world: a small dish seasoned to wake up your taste buds before the main course. Let's look at where appetizers come from and how different cuisines approach them.

What Is an Appetizer?

Food cultures around the world have a special first dish meant to make you hungrier. Appetizers are usually slightly sour or salty and served in small portions so they don't fill you up. A Chinese banquet, for example, starts with a cold platter as its appetizer course.

Antipasto: The Italian Appetizer

In Italian cooking the appetizer is called antipasto (the Italian word; in English, appetizer). It is built around cured meats marinated in olive oil, with other ingredients such as mushrooms, cheese and artichokes. The cheese is often provolone or mozzarella, and there are usually a few pickled vegetables, preserved in oil or vinegar.

The best-known meat on an antipasto plate is salami: coarsely ground pork or beef cured with wine and natural cultures, then dried and kept cool using traditional Italian methods. Curing produces lactic acid from natural microbes, which gives salami its rounded, slightly tangy flavour, quite different from fresh meat, and smoking deepens it further. Each region of Italy makes its antipasto a little differently, but cured meat and mushrooms are almost always there, sometimes with garlic bread brushed with olive oil.

Antipasto is the first course of an Italian meal, and the choice of meat and cheese often tells you which region a menu comes from. In French, small starters are called hors d'oeuvres.

Thai Appetizers

Cheese and butter weren't traditional ingredients in Thailand, so Thai appetizers rely on bold flavour instead: sour, salty and herby bites that get your appetite going. Here are four classic Thai starters you can make at home.

1. Fried Shrimp Spring Rolls

Ingredients: ¼ cabbage, finely shredded · glass noodles, soaked until soft · 4 shiitake mushrooms, chopped · peeled prawns, chopped · 10 spring roll wrappers · 1 tbsp light soy sauce · 1 tbsp oyster sauce · oil for frying

  1. Stir-fry the cabbage and mushrooms in a little oil until cooked, add the glass noodles, season with soy and oyster sauce, then add the prawns until cooked. Let the filling cool.
  2. Spoon a moderate amount of filling onto each wrapper (too little and the rolls are loose; too much and they burst while frying), roll up and seal with a little flour paste or egg white.
  3. Fry over medium heat until nearly golden (they keep cooking after you take them out), then drain on a rack.

2. Fried Larb Pork Balls

Ingredients: 300 g minced pork with some fat · 2 tbsp lime juice · 2 tbsp fish sauce · chilli flakes to taste · 2 tbsp toasted rice powder · 2 tbsp crispy batter flour · 6 kaffir lime leaves, shredded · 2 spring onions · 2 sawtooth coriander stems · 5 shallots · oil for frying

  1. Mix the pork with lime juice, fish sauce and chilli, then add the toasted rice and flour.
  2. Gently fold in the kaffir lime leaves, spring onion, sawtooth coriander and shallots.
  3. Roll into balls and fry in hot oil over medium-low heat until golden, without turning too often. Drain and serve with fresh vegetables.

3. Thai Shrimp Cakes (Tod Man Goong)

Ingredients: 280 g peeled prawns for pounding + 70 g prawns cut into small pieces · 70 g pork back fat, finely chopped · 1 tsp white peppercorns · 5 coriander roots · 1½ tbsp small garlic cloves · ½–1 tsp sugar · seasoning powder and oyster sauce to taste · 2 cups coarse breadcrumbs · oil for frying

  1. Pound the peppercorns first, then the coriander roots and garlic, into a fine paste.
  2. Pound the 280 g of prawns a few at a time until sticky, then add the pork fat.
  3. Mix with the prawn pieces, the paste, sugar and seasoning, knead until springy and chill for about an hour.
  4. Shape into flat rounds about 1 cm thick and 5 cm across, coat in breadcrumbs and deep-fry over medium heat until golden. Serve with plum sauce or sweet chilli sauce.

4. Grilled Pork Neck with Jaew Dipping Sauce

For the pork: 1 kg pork neck · 1½ heads garlic · 5–6 coriander roots · 2 tsp pepper · 4 tsp sugar · 1½ tbsp fish sauce · 4 tbsp oyster sauce · ½ tbsp seasoning sauce · optional toasted coriander seeds

For the jaew: 3 tbsp fish sauce · 2 tbsp tamarind juice · 1 tbsp lime juice · 1 tsp palm sugar · 1 tbsp chilli flakes · 1 tbsp toasted rice powder · shallots, spring onion and sawtooth coriander

  1. Slice the pork into thick pieces. Pound the garlic, coriander roots and pepper, mix with the sauces and sugar, and marinate the pork for about an hour.
  2. Grill until cooked through, then slice into bite-sized pieces.
  3. For the jaew, mix fish sauce, lime, tamarind and sugar, add chilli and herbs, and finish with toasted rice.

Appetizers by the River at Coco Chaophraya

If you'd rather not cook, come and share starters by the Chao Phraya. Coco Chaophraya serves both Thai and Western appetizers, such as fried larb pork balls, grilled pork neck with jaew, crispy fried onions, chicken satay, a fried seafood platter and bacon & spinach quesadilla. For more ideas, read Thai bar snacks by the Chao Phraya and Bruschetta, the Italian appetizer.

Coco Chaophraya is at 49/1 Phra Sumen Road, Chana Songkhram, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200, right on the Chao Phraya River with a view of Rama 8 Bridge. Open daily 10:00–23:00 · Tel 02-281-9918 · LINE @cocochao.

About us: Coco Chaophraya has been open for more than 10 years. We started at the front of Baan Chao Phraya before moving to the Chao Phraya riverside. Our chefs have more than 10 years of experience, and our professional baristas have more than 10 years of experience making coffee.